Men who have travelled over 3000 km to one of the driest districts in Southern Tamil Nadu and have shown the local famers how faith and hard work can yield amazing results.
Ramanad (Tamil Nadu), August 2, 2016: The farmers, with smiles on their sun-tanned faces, move around carrying their plough and meticulously directing the water's flow. Later, they slowly move on to cut the mango trees' shrubs. As these Punjabis work, you might get an impression that one is in Punjab. But, well you will be surprised. These men are in Vallandhai village in Kamuthi taluk of Ramnad district and run the Akal Farm. Men who have travelled over 3000 km to one of the driest districts in Southern Tamil Nadu and have shown the local famers how faith and hard work can yield amazing results.
THE JOURNEY
Nine years back Manmohan Singh and a group of other Punjabis on the advice of their guru ji Baba Iqbal Singh moved to Ramnad district. They found this to be one of the driest districts in southern Tamil Nadu. Total dry lands were sold to the members of the Akal farms in throw away prices as low as Rs 10,000 per acre. For these Punjabis back then, hopes of a bright future was slim.
Manmohan Singh recollects, "Baba ji said that it is easy to do farming in locations where there is water, electricity and other facilities. But to do agriculture in areas where there is nothing is what is required to help the people here. The people here have been very friendly and we have been working with them closely and in fact we even helped them with our tractors and also with our knowledge of farming."
THE STRUGGLE
One of the other senior member in the group, Sarabjeet Singh has a memory of struggle to share, "This place is very different from ours. It is very hot here, and also we didn't have a place to stay and proper food to eat. The initial days were difficult." But after all the hard time there is always a bright future.
These men constructed their own dormitories, and some of them even brought their families with them. Also, they quickly learnt to overcome their language barrier and create friendly relationship with the locals. "One of our friend speaks really good Tamil, unfortunately he has gone home or you could have heard him deliver some famous dialogue," said Manmohan talking enthusiastically about a fellow farmer.
GOOD FARMERS
Other than vowing people with the language the other part that they were quick in doing was extending their helping hands to others in the neighbourhood. Helping them plough their fields with the help of the Akal farms tractors, giving the farmers tips on how to go about with the farming using latest innovative farming techniques. "This is one of the driest places in the country, and availability of water or rain is very less. So we have to make optimum use of our limited source," said Manmohan. The farmers practice drop farming in the farm and also ensure that the crops cultivated are those that requires less water.
These hard working men have cultivated Amla and guava on 40 acres each, mixed dry fruits like cashew nuts and almonds on five acres, papaya on 10 acres and they have planted 5,000 mango trees on 80 acres besides coconut and timber-value trees on 10 acres each. An assortment of other fruits and vegetables and inter-crop like pumpkin, cucumber and watermelon has also been cultivated. While Manmohan and his team of men work on 200 acres of land now, they still have around 700 more acres of land that is yet to be cultivated. Their success has been an inspiration for the other people in this remote village.
Though these men repeat that all the success is god's grace their pride shines on their faces when they know that they have become an inspiration for others. An otherwise very humble, Sarabjeeth Singh proudly says, "After seeing us able to create this, people here have been trying to cultivate their own farms and we have been helping them in whichever way possible."